The Golden Age of Air Travel?

Airline pilot Patrick Smith makes the point that we're living in the Golden Age of Air travel.

Just a reminder how much things changed. A description of the kangaroo route just after the war. Qantas first flew the Kangaroo Route on 1 December 1947. A Lockheed Constellation carried 29 passengers and 11 crew from Sydney to London with stops in Darwin, Singapore, Calcutta, Karachi, Cairo, and Tripoli (passengers stayed overnight in Singapore and Cairo). A return fare was £585, equivalent to 130 weeks average pay.

Jet flights (Qantas 707) started in 1959; in April 1960 the fastest trip from Sydney to London was 34 hr 30 min with eight stops.

In 1971 Qantas added Boeing 747s, reducing the travel time and number of stops (in the late 1970s flights typically stopped at Singapore and Bahrain). Fares fell, opening air travel to more people with more competition.

Qantas announced that - commencing in 2013 - all through services to the United Kingdom would stop at Dubai. Qantas also announced that its service to Frankfurt via Singapore would end in April 2013, leaving London as its only European destination.

Also unquestionably back then pretty much that kind of air travel was all first class. That kind of travel has at the least regained its level of service by now.

Australia has never been really a cheap place to travel to, except from the most nearby other places (ie New Zeland and some parts of Polynesia). It really isn't close to anything else. It's a wonder the British took control of it and kept it. I mean, it's about harder to reach Australia from the British isles than from just about anywhere else in the world.

You know, I'm going to look up books on the history of commercial aviation. I know the general outline, but it would be neat to learn what really was available when and where.

If Trump where half as smart as he thinks he is, he'd be twice as smart as he really is.

But for someone who lives in Vegas and is permitted to pay for the ticket at the airport and who can pack some underwear and socks in a briefcase an overnight trip is incredibly cheap.

I've been flying Spirit and Frontier my last couple trips to Vegas. I pack everything in a briefcase (well, a Kenneth Cole shoulder bag that has an expanding zipper). The fares were $43, then $100, then $146. That's roundtrip from Ohio. I also flew round trip to Atlanta for $70.

I've been generally pleased with SpirTier. The seats may have well been made out of plywood. But they get your there. I think Frontier is slightly better operated than Spirit, but my sample size is small.

You can save $35 on a round trip booking with Spirit if you buy at the Airport. When we are talking about $150 tickets, that's a significant savings.

The one Ultra low cost I flew, Viva Aerobus, was a rather unpleasant experience for me. I'm sure I wrote about it somewhere.

Viva has 9 destinations from MEX. For probably 8 of them you could fly a different airline for not much more money . But you might be really thankful that Viva exists if you want to go to Puerto Escondido. Now you have a cheap alternative to a 12 hour bus ride.

Ditto for point to point trips like Veracruz to Reynosa, or Villahermosa to Tampico. Now Viva saves you a long and fairly expensive connection.

The same attraction is often true for the ULCC in the USA, they often save you a ton of time by flying point to point. The attraction can be just as strong as the price.

In 2009 news stories carried the headline "Spanish Queen sets example with £13 Ryanair flight to London" The 70-year-old monarch (Queen Sofia) boarded the plane in the northern Spanish city of Santander .

While the trip was widely cited as an example of austerity that other world leaders should follow, the simple matter was that Queen Sofia was in Santander on a trip with the King, and she wanted to see her brother (which is a private trip).Santander a tiny airport, and the only airline with nonstops to Britain is Ryan Air. She had a choice to fly Iberia to Madrid and change planes for a first class flight to London, or simply to suck it up and take the cheap nonstop to London and be there in 2 hours. To her spending £13 or fifty times that amount is all pocket change. I assume she just wanted to save time.

As a reigning monarch, Queen Elizabeth II, by definition never goes on a private trip. The government will lease a jet no matter where she wants to go, even if it is to go from residence to residence. Prince Charles is expected to pay for private trips to go skiing or to go hunting in Romania. Queen Sofia of Spain is the wife of the monarch, not the monarch, and she pays for a private trip.

But you might be really thankful that Viva exists if you want to go to Puerto Escondido. Now you have a cheap alternative to a 12 hour bus ride.

I have a much cheaper alternative: I don't care much for beach resorts.

On the other hand, I'm convinced their low fares pressured Volaris into charging fees for luggage, snacks, etc.

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Ditto for point to point trips like Veracruz to Reynosa, or Villahermosa to Tampico. Now Viva saves you a long and fairly expensive connection.

As most connections are in Mexico City...

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While the trip was widely cited as an example of austerity that other world leaders should follow, the simple matter was that Queen Sofia was in Santander on a trip with the King, and she wanted to see her brother (which is a private trip).Santander a tiny airport, and the only airline with nonstops to Britain is Ryan Air. She had a choice to fly Iberia to Madrid and change planes for a first class flight to London, or simply to suck it up and take the cheap nonstop to London and be there in 2 hours. To her spending £13 or fifty times that amount is all pocket change. I assume she just wanted to save time.

Or she wanted to brag about her humility. It's a common thing for politicians and other public figures, especially royalty.

Like AMLO in Mexico, who bragged about using a compact Nissan only. he left out he had a driver, and a team of bodyguards on SUVs follow him around everywhere.

If Trump where half as smart as he thinks he is, he'd be twice as smart as he really is.

Paco your mention of the MEX to Puerto Escondido flight reminded me of a flight I took out of P.E. about 20 years ago. It was to Oaxaca not MEX but rather interesting. It was an old DC3 that after it took off made 2 or 3 circles over the Pacific to get enough altitude to get over the mountains. The cockpit door was not closed (probably couldn't) and the control console had a birds nest of wires hanging from it that reached the floor. There was no problems on the rather scenic flight but not one I would want to make on a regular basis. Not sure how this ties into Nareeds 'golden days of air travel'.

Paco your mention of the MEX to Puerto Escondido flight reminded me of a flight I took out of P.E. about 20 years ago. It was to Oaxaca not MEX but rather interesting.

That trip from Oaxaca City to Puerto Escondido really makes you realize you are in southern Mexico. For those of you who have never been there the straight line distance is 85 miles, but there is a little thing called the Sierra Madre mountains between you. I took an overnight bus to get there via Salina Cruz. That's right, an overnight bus!

From kenarman's description you get an idea how harrowing air travel can be. The preferred method of the locals are "Suburban Vans", which are private van services of about a dozen seats. They cram you in and speed over these tiny mountain roads so you can make it in 4 hours. Tourists have been literally known to fall out of the vans and kiss the dirt.

Oaxaca has 14 ethnic and linguistic groups, so it is by far the most diverse state in North America (possibly all of the Americas)

I read a rather interesting article a few weeks ago about the last commercial flight on a DC-10. This was on an Afghan airline flying first to Kuwait and thence to London.

In contrast the last commercial flight of an MD-11, the follow-up development of the DC-10, was on KLM from Montreal to Amsterdam. Later KLM offered a few flights to nowhere on an MD-11 for aviation enthusiasts.

I don't have a point. Old planes keep flying for some reason somewhere, but are eventually retired. The DC-3 was produced in very large quantities as a transport and cargo airplane for the US Army Air Corps. The surplus planes after the war were used by many airlines for passenger service. I wouldn't be entirely surprised if a few are still flying either passenger or cargo flights in some odd corners of the world.

Many DC-10s and MD-11s are still in use as cargo planes. FedEx uses them a great deal.

If Trump where half as smart as he thinks he is, he'd be twice as smart as he really is.

I don't have a point. Old planes keep flying for some reason somewhere, but are eventually retired. The DC-3 was produced in very large quantities as a transport and cargo airplane for the US Army Air Corps. The surplus planes after the war were used by many airlines for passenger service. I wouldn't be entirely surprised if a few are still flying either passenger or cargo flights in some odd corners of the world.

One of the timber companies here had a DC3 for years. They originally bought it to fly crews and supplies to a mill they had 100's of miles North of here. One of my sons was on a minor hockey team that was coached by a principal of the company. He would fly the team to Vancouver on the DC3 to take in Canucks games.